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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. When was this ________________ built?
  2. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  3. The sergeant loved to ________________ orders at us.
  4. She's an expert in the ________________ of medicine.
  5. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  6. She ________________ him three sons and a daughter.
  7. It is only in accepting others that we can ________________ down our own barriers.
  8. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  9. Drying a ________________ is more honorable than shedding torrents of blood.
  10. A trickle of blood ran from her ________________ down her cheek.
  11. I cannot shed a ________________ for that horrible man.
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. Doesn't taking care of babies ________________ you?
  14. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  15. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.
  16. Your daily life is your ________________ and your religion.
  17. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  18. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  19. Use a drill to ________________ a hole in the wall.
  20. Vegetables are growing on this ________________.
  21. Birch trees have smooth white ________________.
  22. Our dog starts to ________________ whenever the doorbell rings.
  23. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  24. The stadium has a track around the football ________________.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. temple — a place of worship
  2. clip — a video
  3. bark — to shout
  4. field — a subject
  5. wound — an injury
  6. bore — gave birth
  7. tear — to rip
  8. wound — past of 'wind'
  9. tear — from crying
  10. temple — side of the head
  11. tear — from crying
  12. clip — to cut
  13. bore — to tire
  14. degree — an amount
  15. degree — temperature
  16. temple — a place of worship
  17. degree — from a university
  18. clip — for paper
  19. bore — to drill
  20. field — farmland
  21. bark — of a tree
  22. bark — a dog's sound
  23. wound — an injury
  24. field — for sport

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com